Steve's Journal

Look forward to several more posts about this weekend’s adventure!  I took the RV out for it’s maiden voyage and went down to visit Elizabeth at school this past weekend.  We decided that it would be an outdoor weekend, and planned to get some biking and geocaching in.  I had seen the geocache GCPBY6 Snoopy’s Mine Blowing Experience while looking through the listings for some of the caches in the area and decided I had to go see this one.

So, Elizabeth and I decided to do this one on Saturday.  Boy, I’m glad we did.  The geocache is just inside an abandoned mine near Dayton TN in an area that I’ve seen referred to as the Bowater Pocket Wilderness and the Laurel-Snow Pocket Wilderness. Tennessee DNR calls it the Laurel-Snow Pocket Wilderness.  Locals tell me that it “used” to be called Bowater…  In any case, you can find the DNR site on the place here.

What we found when we arrived was nothing short of amazing.  I’ll have some other posts on the Wilderness and other geocaches here shortly.  As for this one though, we had the opportunity to meet one of the locals who was busy picking up some trash.  I think his name was Arthur.  He told us all about the history of the area and in particular of the mine that the geocache was in.  It’s called the Richland Mine and back in the early 1900s there was an explosion and collapse at the mine that trapped and killed 21 miners.  He tells me that his grandfather was one of the men working in the mine, although he wasn’t one of the ones killed.  Apparently, a number of the bodies of the miners were not recovered and are still entombed in the mine.  Others who were recovered and some that died later of injuries sustained are apparently buried in wilderness near the mine.  Arthur tells me he has looked for evidence of those graves and so far has found none.

Among other things he told us, he indicated that we should use extreme caution if we choose to venture off the marked trail, especially above the mining areas.  Apparently there are a number of ventilation shafts for the old mines that open up above them, and most are not covered.  It would suck to fall in one!

After chatting with Arthur for a while, we finally got to venture into the mine a short distance. Arthur had warned us about venturing too far into the mine, because there was a shaft back in there that dropped an unknown distance.  That wasn’t an issue for us though (not that we would have anyway) because the mine was flooded and we couldn’t get much further than about 20ft in without getting into the water.  We ended up not finding the geocache because of the water.  I would have waded a bit, but I couldn’t be sure about the depth and didn’t want to do anything foolish.  We got a bunch of pictures too:

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Comments (2) Mar 24 2009

This one has been bugging Elizabeth for some time because its on the campus where she is going to school.  With her new GPS, she found it for us…

Here’s the geocache page if you’re interested:

Geocaching.com – The Flames – GC2F83

Comments (0) Jan 11 2009

Before leaving my daughter at school, she and I tried out one more geocache with hers and my new GPS.  This one was particularly cool.  It was a virtual one, meaning there was no container to find.  This one you get credit for by answering some questions.  The answers to them you find at the site.  Here’s a link to the geocache page:

Geocaching.com – The Blood Stained Mausoleum – GCKNVT

Here’s one account of the story surrounding this place:

John Henderson Craigmiles was a very successful man. He was a former sea captain, and a prominent business man in Cleveland, TN during the 1800s. However, his endured more tragedy than most people can imagine.

Nina Craigmiles was born on August 5, 1864, to John Henderson Craigmiles and his wife, Adelia Thompson Craigmiles. From the day she was born, her entire family fell in love with her, especially John. He showered her with affection, and bought her the best toys money could buy. He rarely ever let her leave his sight, and, as a result, she had few friends her own age. Some people have suggested that she wanted friends her own age, but if she did, she didn’t appear to want for it very much. She seemed very happy in such a loving family.

Sadly, on October 18, 1871, that happiness came to an end. It was Saint Luke’s Day, and Nina’s grandfather, Dr. Gideon Blackburn Thompson, was taking her for a ride on a horse and buggy. He had done this many times before, and Nina absolutely loved riding. Apparently, Dr. Thompson lost control of the horse and buggy, because it went directly into the path of a train. Dr. Thompson was thrown to safety, but Nina was killed.

The entire town was saddened by the news, and many people showed up for her funeral. After her funeral, Dr. Thompson and two others were baptized. The Craigmiles were devout Episcopalians, and since the Episcopal congregation of Cleveland did not have a church to visit at, John Henderson Craigmiles vowed to build one, which he did in memory of Nina. Saint Luke’s Episcopal Church was consecrated on the third anniversary of Nina’s death. It was (and still is) a very beautiful church. Not long after, Mr. Craigmiles had a mausoleum built behind the church in memory of his daughter. She was laid to rest inside, as was another infant son who died, and Mr. and Mrs. Craigmiles. Mr. Craigmiles met an untimely death after falling on some ice, which apparently triggered blood poisoning. A third member of the family had met a tragic death.

Today, if you visit the mausoleum, you will notice red streaks the color of blood appear on it. Almost everyone agrees that these streaks appeared just after Nina was laid to rest inside. These streaks are said by many to represent the tragedy that the Craigmiles family endured. People have tried many times to wash of these streaks, but they cannot. No one can explain what caused them to appear.

In the area around the mausoleum, children have been known to play. Some children have claimed to see the ghostly apparition of a young child dressed in 1800s style clothing. Other people have also reported seeing this, and hearing crying coming from the vicinity of the mausoleum. Local legend says that it’s Nina crying and wanting to play with the friends she never had in life. For years, youth in the area would approach the mausoleum after dark as a test of bravery. Many failed this test.

No one doubts the pain endured by the Craigmiles family. One can only hope that it doesn’t remain now, after their deaths’.

I of course took pictures…   I also did some brief online research, but all I found pretty much parroted whats written above.

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Comments (0) Jan 11 2009